Marseilles to Paris drive

If you are talking about May 29, 2017 I see availability on four trains from Marseille to Paris, some direct and some with one change. They're not cheap (€105-199), and they leave between 6:11 AM and 9:01 AM. You are right, all the later trains that day are showing as sold out.

I looked at http://www.sncf.com/en/passengers - the website for SNCF, the company that actually operates the trains. Were you by chance looking at another site?

If those trains don't work, or if they're sold out by the time you go to buy them, you can fly. Check Skyscanner for options: https://www.skyscanner.com/

Could you provide more information on why you're not able to get TGV tickets from Marseilles to Paris? While many of the trains on 28 May appear to be fully booked, I was able to find a few at www.trainline.eu that still had a few seats available.

Your other choices would be to.....

• travel on a different day
• fly from Marseilles to Paris

Good luck!

Thanks I am arriving in Marseilles at 8 am by costa cruise and can take a train anytime after 10 am. However when I click on the raileurope website for the particular train, it doesn't accept any bookings and sends a mail that someone will contact me in 24 hours but no one does. I don't know how to take this further . I even had a chat with the raileurope.com guys but they also couldn't help. Have tried through all trVel agents also but they face same issue . So I chose to drive back

"when I click on the raileurope website"

That's rarely the best way to go. Rail Europe does not show all trains, and can mark up tickets - sometimes substantially.

You always want to start with the company that operates the trains. In this case, that's SNCF, in the link I gave above. If you have trouble buying tickets on SNCF, the Trainline link Ken gave is a good alternative; Trainline does not mark up tickets, and can be easier to use.

However, you've now added important information that was missing in your first post. Yes, the later trains are indeed sold out. So, driving or flying are your other options.

Thanks that's useful but tickets still
Not available .. wat are alternate routes to drive back

As Harold mentioned, the first thing to do is forget about Rail Europe as it's not the most reliable place to check rail schedules in Europe.

It appears that 28 May is a particularly bad day to be travelling from the south of France to Paris, as I also checked trains from Nice to Paris and most of those are also sold out. As it's a Sunday, the weekend travellers are probably heading home for work the next day.

I checked Trainline again, and there still seems to be seats available on the 13:40 departure from Marseilles (2nd class, €120 PP), but I expect those will probably be gone by the end of today. That leaves two options.....

• get a hotel in Marseilles for one night and travel by train the next day.
• take a flight from Marseilles to Paris. Air France is probably your best bet, although if you travelled to Nice you could also use easyJet. I checked flights from Nice and the cost is unusually high that day, probably due to the fact that the cheaper seats are already sold out, and also there may be higher demand that day.

If you were thinking of driving, note that you will require an International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. OR a certified copy of the terms of your home D.L in French. You'll also have to budget for tolls on the motorways. For a trip of that distance, driving would not be my choice.

Actually, you have a bit of a problem. It's the return day for a four-day holiday weekend that begins the previous Thursday, so any tickets you can find-grab them, whether train or plane no matter the price. Car traffic will be very jammed, too, so driving would be a pain. You might look into a flight or train on Monday. Finally, keep watching in case SNCF or Air France adds an extra plane or train.

Thanks Ken, I got those 5 tickets from Trainline at 120 euro pp. that indeed was very helpful . I just need to goto Paris Disneyland and take a train to reach near Louvre where I am staying

As that train arrives at Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy station, it's very easy to get from there into Paris using the RER. It will probably just be a matter of buying RER tickets and going to a different platform in the same station. While the station in this case is not as easy as arriving in a more central location, at least it gets you to Paris! Under the circumstances, there are few choices. This chart shows the RER routes and the stations in Paris (use the RER "A" chart on the left). Which area is your hotel located in?

Note that the train from Marseilles to Paris requires passengers to board 30 minutes prior to departure. Don't be late!

Thank you Ken,
My hotel is located at 7 Ru de l'Echelle

Thanks for the additional information. The closest Metro stop to your hotel appears to be Palais-Royal (Musée Du Louvre).

If you want to travel from Marne-La-Vallée Chessy to Paris via RER, this route should work.....

• Buy tickets to the Metro stop near your hotel, as listed below (will probably require a Zone 5 ticket).
• Take RER "A" from Marne-la-Vallée to Châtelet-Les Halles (this is a large transfer station but it's well marked so you should be able to find your way around). There are often some good street musicians playing in the tunnels, so it can be an entertaining experience.
• Do not exit the station! Walk through the passages to the adjacent Châtelet station to connect with Metro Line 7.
• Take Metro Line 7 (direction La Courneuve - 8 Mai 1945) to Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre Metro station. It should be the second stop. Exit the station. There will probably be several exits leading to different streets. If there's an exit for Rue Saint-Honoré, that's probably your best bet.
• If you have cell service with GPS, use that to determine directions to your hotel. Otherwise pack along a good Map. It's only a couple of blocks so you should be able to walk from the Metro station.
• IMPORTANT NOTE - retain ALL tickets until you exit the Metro system, otherwise you'll be subject to hefty fines!

There could be other solutions that will work, but this is the method I'd probably use in the same situation.